Noah’s Ark would have floated even with two of every animal in the world packed inside, scientists have calculated.Although researchers are unsure if all the creatures could have squeezed into the huge boat, they are confident it would have handled the weight of 70,000 creatures without sinking.A group of master’s students from the Department of Physics and Astronomy at Leicester University studied the exact dimensions of the Ark, set out in Genesis 6:13-22.According to The Bible, God instructed Noah to build a boat which was 300 cubits long 50 cubits wide and 30 cubits high – recommending gopher wood for the enormous lifeboat.The students averaged out the Egyptian and Hebrew cubit measurement to come up with 48.2cm, making the Ark around 144 metres long – about 100 metres shorter than Ark Royal.

Using the dimensions, the Archimedes principal of buoyancy and approximate animal wrights they were astonished to find out that the Ark would have floated.Student Benjamin Jordan, 21, from Bury St Edmonds, said: “Using the dimensions of the Ark and the density of the water, we were able to calculate its buoyancy force, which, according to Archimedes’ principle, is equal to the weight of the volume of fluid the object displaces.“This meant we were then able to estimate the total mass the Ark could support before the gravitational weight would overcome the buoyancy force, causing the Ark to sink.”Previous research has suggested that there were approximately 35,000 species of animals which would have needed to be saved by Noah, enabling the students to conclude that the dimensions given in the Bible would have allowed Noah to build an ark that would float with all of the animals on board.The students had to swap gopher wood for cypress wood, as Biblical experts continue to speculate as to what gopher wood might be. Some think it may just mean plained timber.

Noah’s Ark would have floated even with two of every animal in the world packed inside, scientists have calculated.Although researchers are unsure if all the creatures could have squeezed into the huge boat, they are confident it would have handled the weight of 70,000 creatures without sinking.A group of master’s students from the Department of Physics and Astronomy at Leicester University studied the exact dimensions of the Ark, set out in Genesis 6:13-22.According to The Bible, God instructed Noah to build a boat which was 300 cubits long 50 cubits wide and 30 cubits high – recommending gopher wood for the enormous lifeboat.The students averaged out the Egyptian and Hebrew cubit measurement to come up with 48.2cm, making the Ark around 144 metres long – about 100 metres shorter than Ark Royal.

Using the dimensions, the Archimedes principal of buoyancy and approximate animal wrights they were astonished to find out that the Ark would have floated.Student Benjamin Jordan, 21, from Bury St Edmonds, said: “Using the dimensions of the Ark and the density of the water, we were able to calculate its buoyancy force, which, according to Archimedes’ principle, is equal to the weight of the volume of fluid the object displaces.“This meant we were then able to estimate the total mass the Ark could support before the gravitational weight would overcome the buoyancy force, causing the Ark to sink.”Previous research has suggested that there were approximately 35,000 species of animals which would have needed to be saved by Noah, enabling the students to conclude that the dimensions given in the Bible would have allowed Noah to build an ark that would float with all of the animals on board.The students had to swap gopher wood for cypress wood, as Biblical experts continue to speculate as to what gopher wood might be. Some think it may just mean plained timber.

Spunds like a complete crock of sh*t from creationists. As nobody knows how long a cubit was or what gopher wood was, it simplly is not possible to say anything about this fictitous vessel, let alone determine its precise measurements. How do thwey calculate the number and size of animals on this vessel as the creationists claim they were all "kinds" rather than species. Given that there is no evidence of "kinds" with the archaelogical record and, from creationists, no definition of what a kind is, the Torygraph's. journalist looks as if he has had what the German's call a schnapsidee.

IIRC this old tale comes from an exercise in calculation set to some students and wasn't intended to have anything to do with an "actual" ark. Not that that stopped the creationists from jumping onto the bandboat.